NYIndex: Sports Personalities Step Up to Bat

Two strong personalities in sports, tennis star John McEnroe and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, moved up the NYIndex this week after their sports commentary made the news.

Former tennis player and now commentator John McEnroe moved up the ranking of New York’s most influential people after Wimbledon began on June 24. Read coverage of the event at the Journal’s sports blog, the Daily Fix. Mr. McEnroe has opinions on all things tennis, from equal pay for female players to the performance of the world’s top players.

Getty Images

Former World Number 1 John McEnroe poses at a book launch at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships in London on June 29.

As for McEnroe, he has to be the progenitor of that totally acceptable, completely off-the-hook temper tantrum. The fierce intensity, the raw emotion, the shameless barrage of expletives—would loutishness be so celebrated if not for him? Before Bo Jackson broke a bat over his knee, McEnroe slammed a racket. And really, could Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano, above, bump an ump, throw a ball into the outfield, slam his glove against the dugout, take a bat to a water cooler and then come back to work the next day if McEnroe had never yelled, “You cannot be serious!”

Mr. McEnroe, who has a tennis academy in New York, moved to 65 on the list of the top 100 most influential people in New York and sits at number 8 in the Sports category.

Hot on his heels at number 66 in the top 100 and number 9 in the sports category is Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, who was in the news after making a less than positive comment to ESPN about player Alex Rodriguez. Writes columnist Jason Gay on the sitcom-like drama:

According to ESPN New York, Cashman said that A-Rod should shut up, except between the “shut” and the “up” he used an unsavory word you can’t say on broadcast television. The “A-Rod” sitcom would have to be on HBO.

Cashman’s irritation with A-Rod suggests a relationship fractured beyond repair; were it not for the hundred million plus that is owed, the Yankees change the locks on the locker-room door.

The NYIndex ranks individuals on the basis of an influence score generated by media-archive service Factiva, as well as the contribution of their industry to the gross domestic product, and their social media activity.